ESS Professor Awarded NYS DEC Grant

Environmental Studies and Science Clinical Associate Professor Michael Rubbo, PhD, was awarded a $46,612 New York State Department of Environmental Conservation grant for “Building the capacity of the Pocantico River Watershed Alliance through a stakeholder-based watershed assessment” under the Hudson River Estuary Grant Program.

This project will compile all existing relevant information and data pertaining to the Pocantico River Watershed to create a watershed assessment that will characterize the current knowledge base of the watershed, identify gaps in information, and document concerns and issues that need attention. Dr. Rubbo will work closely with the Pocantico River Watershed Alliance to help build the groups’ capacity, identifying existing data and gaps where data needs to be collected. Ultimately, the goal is to use the assessment to develop a watershed plan for the Pocantico River Watershed.    

In addition to a final assessment report, the data assembled will be presented on an ESRI Story Map as a tool for local municipalities, conservation organizations, watershed groups, community groups, and other stakeholders in the Pocantico River Watershed region to learn more about, and become invested in, the watershed.

A large portion of the grant funds will be used to support both graduate and undergraduate students’ work on the project, including conducting interviews with stakeholders, collecting water quality data through streamwalks, and building the Story Map to be shared with the general public. Work on the project has begun, with students joining in the summer of 2022.

 

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